This invention relates to devices for hanging items, such as clothing, equipment bags, and garment bags, from a support structure. More particularly, the present invention relates to a hanger or hook that is removably attachable to a structure, such as a chain link fence.
Participants in a variety of outdoor sports, such as baseball, softball, tennis, and soccer, frequently bring with them articles of clothing and athletic equipment, other personal articles, and bags for carrying such items. Typically, there is no place to put these articles, other than on the ground or on a bench or the like. This is unsatisfactory, in that articles of clothing can become wrinkled or soiled, and other articles can be damaged or cause injury if they are stepped on or tripped over.
To remedy this situation, a number of devices have been developed in the prior art to allow such articles to be hung from the chain link fences that typically enclose athletic playing fields and tennis courts.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,499 to Simmons discloses a hook-like hanger having an extension that intertwines between an intersecting pair of wires of a chain link fence. While this device is suitable for hanging a single item of clothing or the like, it may be prone to being shaken loose if the fence is severely jarred.
Another approach is taken by the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,817 to Mosteller. The Mosteller device includes three fence-engaging arms and hanger member extending from a central hub. Two of the arms extend laterally and are bent rearwardly, terminating in spherical cams. The third arm extends upwardly and is bent forwardly, also terminating in spherical cam. The hanger member forwardly and downwardly from the hub. The device is attached to a chain link fence by feeding the end of the upwardly-extending arm under one diagonal fence wire, and then snapping the cams at the ends of the laterally-extending arms around the distal sides of two adjacent wires that intersect the first wire. While this device may provide a more secure attachment than a device constructed in accordance with the teachings of the Simmons patent, it cannot be adjusted to accommodate fences with different wire spacings. Moreover, like the Simmons device, the Mosteller device is suitable for hanging only one item at a time.
There has thus been unfulfilled need for a device that can hang items from a chain link fence, which can be used on fences of widely varying wire spacings, and which can be used to hang more than one item at a time.